You asked for photos from the beach, so here they are.
I took my good friend Betty out to Todai (sushi buffet) for lunch this afternoon and we stuffed ourselves a bit. We always go there on our birthdays and never leave hungry.
After a few stops at Costco, the bank, and assorted cell phone stores, we drove back to her place in Ocean Beach and walked down to the weekly Farmer's Market. Ocean Beach is quite a 60's, laid-back kind of place--didn't get a Starbucks until a few years ago. We wandered through the market, buying fruits, veggies, and flowers, and she introduced me to many of her friends who sell things there.
There are usually lots of flowers for sale. These are Bird of Paradise.
Betty sells a line of photo cards of the Ocean Beach area, so we stopped in one store to check her supply and met these characters.
This is Betty. She and I met a number of years ago while we did a year of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) together at the Center for Urban Ministry. Became very good friends.
One of the Market entertainers. The band was down at the other end of the street.
Hodads is quite a famous hamburger place--very noisy and crowded, excellent burgers. License plates all over the walls, some quite strange.
More people at the market
Since the sun was going down in about 30 minutes, we headed down to the beach to watch. Kind of cloudy tonight, though. Here's the Ocean Beach Pier.
People and birds on the beach. They outlawed drinking and smoking on the beaches here last year and it seems to have made quite a positive difference. Now there are more families coming the the beach than before.
Lots of surfers by the pier.
This seagull decided to pose for me.
I tried to photograph this kite at just the right angle
Finally, the sunset. I've seen many better, but this one with all the clouds wasn't too bad.